Note that you will still have to pay for the AI support, which is presumably a major factor in this strategy.

ie. How many devs will really use it in it's "free" state as titled? Fewer and fewer I suspect.

I'm sceptical about the prevalence of non-AI-centred-IDEs going forward - we live in a new era now - and I guess JetBrains have also come to that conclusion and this is a pivot to support the thesis.